YEMEN AID

Aden residents on verge of ‘famine’ are suffering as fighting continues despite efforts to reach Ramadan ceasefire

Starving residents of Aden bemoan their lot as ceasfire failure hits delivery of aid,

ADEN // Frustrated by the UN’s failure to deliver desperately needed aid, residents of the southern Yemeni city have started to vent their anger at the world body and at rebels besieging their home.

A UN-declared truce aimed at allowing aid to get to millions of famine-threatened Yemenis formally took effect late on Friday but Saudi-led airstrikes and clashes have raged on.

Iran- backed Shiite Houthi rebels aided by troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have for months besieged several areas of the port city held by fighters loyal to exiled president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi.

“Aden is on the verge of famine,” said local activist Mohammed Mossaed.

“We don’t need the truce of [UN envoy] Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. We want an end to the siege so aid enters the city.”

Ships waiting off Aden with aid from UN relief agencies have not been able to dock because of security risks.

The rebels have also prevented a convoy carrying aid from Hodeidah port from entering Aden, local activist Adnan Al Kaf said.

“There has not been a fundamental change on the ground that would allow aid disembarkment in Aden,” said Abeer Etefa, a spokeswoman of the UN’s World Food Programme.

Three aid-loaded ships continue to wait off Aden, she said yesterday.

On Friday, she said, the truce was “our final hope” to reach the needy.

The UN had hoped the six-day truce would last until the end of Ramadan, but just hours after it formally went into effect the Saudi- led coalition resumed raids and fresh clashes broke out between rebels and pro-Hadi fighters.

The coalition brushed aside the ceasefire, saying it did not receive a request from Mr Hadi’s government to halt attacks. The leader of the Houthi rebels said he did not expect the truce to take hold.

“What truce is the UN talking about when we are being bombed by the Houthis and the prices of tomatoes and potatoes have gone up six-fold?” said resident Yasser Mubrarak. He summed up the feeling of Aden residents who found themselves trapped in the middle of a fierce conflict where they barely have enough to eat.

“The truce only benefits the Houthis,” said Anis Obbad, another Aden resident.

“This is what also happened during the first truce when no aid reached Aden and it was all carried to Hodeidah,” a rebel-held western port.

He was referring to a five-day truce declared in May by the Saudi-led coalition to allow aid deliveries.

“The only solution for Aden is a Houthi pull-out and lifting of the blockade,” said Mr Obbad.

A local official even accused the United Nations of “collusion” with the Houthis.

Nayef Al Bakri, vice governor of Aden, yesterday condemned “the inability of the organisation to provide protection” for aid-loaded ships.

He also criticised the UN’s delivery of 38 lorries carrying aid to Aden neighbourhoods that are held by the rebels, while it failed to bring aid into areas controlled by the other side. The UN has declared Yemen a level-3 humanitarian emergency, the highest on its scale, with nearly half the country facing a food crisis.

More than 21.1 million people – 80 per cent of Yemen’s population – need aid, with 13 million facing food shortages. Access to water has become difficult for 9.4 million people. The UN said more than 3,200 people – about half of them civilians – have been killed in the conflict since late March.